Post Office Studios and Ogilvy collab to create road safety awareness animated video for Tata Motors

Mumbai-based new media studio, Post Office Studios, a 2D animation and motion graphics vertical at Kulfi Collective recently collaborated with Ogilvy for an animated video released during Tata Motors’ ‘Road Safety Initiative’ in Bangladesh. The anthem No Second Chance was conceptualized and composed by the Ogilvy team. The creative animated video for the same was developed by a dynamic collective of designers of the Post Office Studios.

No Second Chance was conceived by Ogilvy to create awareness, especially among truck drivers as well as other vehicle drivers about the importance of cautious driving to avoid accidents. The crux of this anthem is straightforward, while life gives us plenty of opportunities to fix silly mistakes and minor botches, on the road, there is no second chance, which is why we must be careful as recklessness can cost a life.

“While talking about critical issues like road safety, it was important to not sound preachy or rigid or talk down to vehicle drivers, and the catchy anthem does a great job of addressing the issue. For us the mandate clearly then was to bring the same approachable fun tonality and vibrancy of the anthem in the visuals,” said Kulfi Collective co-founder and CCO Akshat Gupt.

“Road safety is a serious subject, so to address it effectively, our team developed a concept where the visual language was light-hearted to strike a perfect balance. Our objective was to keep it grounded but ensure that the audience could relate to the anthem’s lyrics effortlessly. The video was released on 18 October during the campaign and garnered over three million + views in just less than two weeks! Furthermore, as the video was well-liked by everyone, we were beyond thrilled to receive immense praise from both Ogilvy and Tata Motors teams,” said Post Office Studios project co-directors Vibha Lad and Joydeep Chowdhury. 

The team at the animation and motion design studio considered instances that are relatable to truck drivers. These instances, combined with a set of style frames in different colour palettes that are soothing and appealing to the eyes and that transition seamlessly, enabled the audience to draw similarities and understand the situation better. Not only that, but the animation team also used brush strokes and various texture patches to give an organic feel to the illustrations.

Animation, as a storytelling technique, is used to keep the audience glued to the film. But the power of animation lies in completely integrating cultural relevance while catering to local tastes and yet managing to be culturally multivocal when dubbed in regional languages of the world. Due to this advantage, novel narratives via animation have reached the mainstream global market.

Post Office Studios’ video breaks through the conventional creative limits to leverage this potential of animation and craft an engaging awareness film for the No Second Chance anthem thereby also lending a refreshing lens to the ‘Road Safety Initiative’ in Bangladesh by Tata Motors.

Ogilvy team had group creative director Hemal Jhaveri, group creative director Khurram Haque, creative director Nitin Kerur, associate creative director Austin Dsouza, art director Rohan Sawant, senior art director Prachi Damani, senior VP account management Dushyant Kumar, account supervisor Juhi Wadia and senior VP planning Amritraj Thakur on board for the project. 

Members of Post Office Studios who worked on the project are directors Joydeep Chowdhury and Vibha Lad, creative director Kunal Prabhu, executive producer Kedar Thapar, creative producer Aunnesha Sen, associate producer Khyan Kotak, illustrators Joydeep Chowdhury, Omkar Sawant, Minal Dusane, Robin Chakraborty, Sharath Raj and Shradha Verma. 

Animation was done by Vibha Lad, Varunjyoti Deori, Suman Saha and Aditya Aman, Akhtar Shaikh served as the editor.